Paige Ryan
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paigevryan.bsky.social
Paige Ryan
@paigevryan.bsky.social
850 followers 460 following 170 posts
I like words or whatever 🤷‍♀️😜

More officially, a “Best of the Net” nominee with poems featured in The Hopper, Tiny Seed Lit. Journal, Plants & Poetry Journal, and others 🌱
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Paige Ryan @paigevryan.bsky.social · Jun 19
Rebecca Solnits “No Straight Road Takes You There” is currently keeping me sane.

Read for good perspective on solidarity, mutual aid, community, and pleasure/leisure’s ability to be a safety net.
Picture of a page in a book that reads: They formed a group they named Common Ground and chose as their slogan "Solidarity not charity," a phrase inspired by the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano's statement "I don't believe in charity. I believe in solidarity. Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top to the bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other person. I have a lot to learn from other people." Picture of a page in a book that reads: “To put it more directly, what is mutual in mutual aid is not in the goods and services delivered; it's in the underlying belief in the deep connections between those who give and those who receive. It is a deep belief in and commitment to inseparability: that my well-being is inseparable from yours and that, in caring for yours, I care for myself and, more than that, for the larger whole that is us, because we are in this together. That is, we are not mutual because of the exchange of aid; we aid each other because we are already mutual. The word mutual is often used in this context to mean sym-metrical, as in a symmetrical exchange, a relationship of reciproc-ity, but mutual aid in the sense that ASS and Common Ground practice it isn't exactly this kind of mutual. It is more like the other meaning of the word what we have in common before and beyond exchange: mutual friends, mutual feelings, a mutual fate.” Picture of a page in a book that reads: “This means recognizing the indirect, long-term, and incalculable benefits of actions. One source of my thinking is anthropologist David Graeber's writing on debt, in which he notes that the old idea was that traditional societies bartered, awkwardly, until money smoothed the transactions. He makes the case that, instead, goods and services circulated in complex ways that knit people together as a community; the transactions were never finished in the way that a cash transaction is, and neither were the relationships. Money is, in his telling, specifically a way to terminate a connection, while the other models of circulation strengthened and perpetuated the connections.” Picture of a page in a book that reads: Organizations spring up suddenly—but, to use a fungal met-aphor, just as mushrooms are only the visible, fruiting bodies of the larger fungus that was long there, underground, so emergent disaster mutual aid often arises out of networks that have long ex-isted. In ordinary times, those organizations may exist for other reasons—as church groups or friendship networks; in extraordinary times, it turns out that the pleasure and leisure produced a safety net that can catch us when things fall apart. In those times of crisis, these networks often expand suddenly in ways that matter afterward. Other times, an emergent organization is like spores on the wind that may land in new places, sowing new life.
paigevryan.bsky.social
Plein Air Poetry (@pleinairpoetry)
substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 2:36 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
I love how a why can age—how you can look at it years later and see all it's been through.
I Write Because
I write because the world cracks me open
substack.com
November 21, 2025 at 12:43 AM
paigevryan.bsky.social
Would love to connect with others on Substack. Read my latest post here and follow along for more:

substack.com/@paigeryan/n...
November 17, 2025 at 2:12 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
One could argue that the best part about writing is stumbling upon the past selves you’ve forgotten.
November 15, 2025 at 1:03 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
In case the news is a little much, here’s a tender poem to read instead.
How to Steep a Winter
Leaves of last year’s trees
open.substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 1:15 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
Fall in haiku.
October 23, 2025 at 1:25 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
People need to stop saying “I didn’t eat all day” as if it’s proof of work ethic.

It’s not ambition. It’s proof of a system that taught you to confuse self-neglect with dedication. And call it professionalism.

(Wild how eating lunch during the workday still feels like a rebellion.)
October 21, 2025 at 9:35 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
“Never be sad when you can be funny instead—unless you can be funny and sad, which is even better. Slipping on a banana peel? Hilarious. Slipping on a banana peel while already downtrodden? Art.”

Finally, a sentiment I can get behind 😅
ambersparks.bsky.social Amber Sparks @ambersparks.bsky.social · Oct 13
I wrote a thing for @writersdigest.bsky.social about why I will never stop writing dark humor, sorry to everyone (except those who also claim BoJack Horseman as their favorite TV show of all time)
On Being an Unreformed Writer of Dark Humor
Author Amber Sparks shares her love of dark humor and how it featured in her youth and adulthood as a writer (and consumer of media).
www.writersdigest.com
October 17, 2025 at 10:47 AM
paigevryan.bsky.social
Death, dressed in its Sunday best. Painted in watercolor. Served almost sweet.

Jenny George’s collection stuns in its balance—heavy / light, above / below, grief / grace.
October 11, 2025 at 3:22 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
The curse of being a poet is: every word is guilty until proven innocent 🤔 😅
paigevryan.bsky.social Paige Ryan @paigevryan.bsky.social · Aug 25
Writing poems is just: uses word I’ve known forever → panics → googles definition.
August 25, 2025 at 7:41 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
Writing poems is just: uses word I’ve known forever → panics → googles definition.
August 25, 2025 at 7:39 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
Quite possibly my favorite philosophical question to date 😂
August 4, 2025 at 6:43 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
I picked strawberries last weekend, and halfway through the field—I had a moment.

Here’s a poem about remembering what joy tastes like 🍓

“…I eat another, then another, again and again, each more ferociously than the last…”
June 30, 2025 at 12:38 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
Rebecca Solnits “No Straight Road Takes You There” is currently keeping me sane.

Read for good perspective on solidarity, mutual aid, community, and pleasure/leisure’s ability to be a safety net.
Picture of a page in a book that reads: They formed a group they named Common Ground and chose as their slogan "Solidarity not charity," a phrase inspired by the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano's statement "I don't believe in charity. I believe in solidarity. Charity is so vertical. It goes from the top to the bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other person. I have a lot to learn from other people." Picture of a page in a book that reads: “To put it more directly, what is mutual in mutual aid is not in the goods and services delivered; it's in the underlying belief in the deep connections between those who give and those who receive. It is a deep belief in and commitment to inseparability: that my well-being is inseparable from yours and that, in caring for yours, I care for myself and, more than that, for the larger whole that is us, because we are in this together. That is, we are not mutual because of the exchange of aid; we aid each other because we are already mutual. The word mutual is often used in this context to mean sym-metrical, as in a symmetrical exchange, a relationship of reciproc-ity, but mutual aid in the sense that ASS and Common Ground practice it isn't exactly this kind of mutual. It is more like the other meaning of the word what we have in common before and beyond exchange: mutual friends, mutual feelings, a mutual fate.” Picture of a page in a book that reads: “This means recognizing the indirect, long-term, and incalculable benefits of actions. One source of my thinking is anthropologist David Graeber's writing on debt, in which he notes that the old idea was that traditional societies bartered, awkwardly, until money smoothed the transactions. He makes the case that, instead, goods and services circulated in complex ways that knit people together as a community; the transactions were never finished in the way that a cash transaction is, and neither were the relationships. Money is, in his telling, specifically a way to terminate a connection, while the other models of circulation strengthened and perpetuated the connections.” Picture of a page in a book that reads: Organizations spring up suddenly—but, to use a fungal met-aphor, just as mushrooms are only the visible, fruiting bodies of the larger fungus that was long there, underground, so emergent disaster mutual aid often arises out of networks that have long ex-isted. In ordinary times, those organizations may exist for other reasons—as church groups or friendship networks; in extraordinary times, it turns out that the pleasure and leisure produced a safety net that can catch us when things fall apart. In those times of crisis, these networks often expand suddenly in ways that matter afterward. Other times, an emergent organization is like spores on the wind that may land in new places, sowing new life.
June 19, 2025 at 11:47 AM
paigevryan.bsky.social
I don’t remember where I got this copy of a talk Thich Nhat Hanh did at a correctional institution but it’s full of nice little meditations on poetry and life.
Q: Would you explain something about your poetry? A: My poetry is something that happens throughout the day. When I water the vegetables or wash dishes, poetry is born in me. When I sit down at the writing table, all I do is deliver the poems. Poetry comes as an inspiration, and is the fruit of my mindful living. After a poem is born, I may realize that it helped me; the poem is like a "bell of mind-fulness." Sometimes you need to reread a poem you have written because it takes you back to a wonderful experience — it reminds you of the beauty available inside of you and all around you. So a poem is a flower you offer to the world, and at the same time, it is a bell of mindfulness for you to remember the presence of beauty in your daily life.
March 31, 2025 at 7:08 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
You know a poetry book is good when…
March 5, 2025 at 10:09 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
Retreating back to nature where the chaos of the world can’t get me.

Send me poems that ground—either ones you’ve read or written.

#poetrycommunity
#writingcommunity
#naturewriting
A poem that reads: TO BE HEARD, ONE NEEDN'T MAKE A SOUND I am myself tree-like, the who of me a fist of wood and xylem. Did you know? If a girl falls in a forest and no one's around to hear it, her fingers pierce the soiled ground and keep growing. Years later, she's a woman [buried alive in dirt] and her favorite thing is to watch from her branches, the way the rain bleeds yellow with meadow pollen.
February 23, 2025 at 6:53 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
The novel “Playground” is my first exposure to Richard Powers and I must say, the out-of-the-blue burst of magical realism on page 173 is such a flex.

#booksky
Photo of a portion of a book that reads: “The girl was haunted and withdrawn. Dora wanted only to be read stories. By four, she started to invent them. Suppose the moon went down into a mouse hole to have a look around. Suppose Gramma's false teeth fell into the telephone and came out the other end and bit your earlobe.” From “Playground” by Richard Powers.
February 9, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Reposted by Paige Ryan
danschkade.bsky.social
WRITING TIP: if you get stuck, try making the font really really big. This will remind you of being a baby, when you only knew twelve words and didn't know about death
February 4, 2025 at 10:41 AM
paigevryan.bsky.social
Also I can’t stop referring to my baked goods as babies because my biological clock is like WHAT ELSE COULD YOU POSSIBLY BE DOING.

#writingcommunity
#poetrycommunity
#breadmaking #queerwriter #queerpoet
paigevryan.bsky.social Paige Ryan @paigevryan.bsky.social · Jan 31
Spent the day watching my sour baby grow up instead of whatever garbage is popping up in the news. 10/10 recommend if you want to maintain your sanity.
January 31, 2025 at 4:48 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
Spent the day watching my sour baby grow up instead of whatever garbage is popping up in the news. 10/10 recommend if you want to maintain your sanity.
January 31, 2025 at 2:04 AM
paigevryan.bsky.social
Modern day self-care 101 🍯 🥲

#writingcommunity #writinglife #poetrycommunity #queerartist #queerpoet #queerwriter
A poem that reads: “THE AFTERMATH OF SCROLLING THE NEW YORK TIMES IN JANUARY (2025) I overdid it on the honey again this morning— first in tea, then on yogurt, followed by a long drawn out drizzle across the counter, my dogs heads, my head, a little in each shoe before leaving— and whatever was left of the bear, I took in my tote to go. My body, responding to a need for sweetness. My mind, letting it.”
January 30, 2025 at 12:42 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
Working for a company that directly conflicts with your values is a special kind of fun.

Someone send me a poem beautiful enough to drown out my disappointment in humanity.

(I promise I’m not usually this dramatic, it’s just been a day)

#poetrycommunity
#writingcommunity
January 27, 2025 at 11:52 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
You wouldn’t be a creative in the modern world if you didn’t have 12 million project ideas a day that you sadly had to lay to rest for the grind 🥲 🪦💔

#writingcommunity
#poetrycommunity
#lifewriting #naturewriting
January 25, 2025 at 1:22 PM
paigevryan.bsky.social
POV: The cadence found in books written before 1900.

#poetrycommunity
#writingcommunity
#lifewriting #poetry
#naturewriting
January 19, 2025 at 6:07 PM